Mustangs beat EP Franklin to take series

MIDLAND - Once Coronado took down El Paso Franklin ace and behemoth Ricky Jacquez, a second consecutive playoff victory against the Cougars on the same day looked and became well within reach.

The Mustangs handed Jacquez his first loss of the season with a 3-2 victory in Game 2, and used that momentum to pummel the Cougars 16-7 in Game 3 to take the Region I-5A quarterfinal series Saturday at Christensen Stadium.

Coronado (28-13), which overcame Friday's 12-4 demolishing to win back-to-back, advances to the regional semifinals to face Plano. Franklin ends the season at 33-6-1.

"You don't see a lot of pitchers like (Jacquez), so to be able to beat him in that first game today gave us all the confidence in the world," said Coronado pitcher Taylor Bridges, who out-dueled Jacquez on the mound. "We knew if we could beat him, that we could beat Franklin."

Jacquez, a Texas commit and a top Major League Baseball prospect in this June's draft, actually pitched well. He only surrendered four hits.

But the 5-foot-7 right-hander made one key mistake, and Brennan Johnson took advantage. In the sixth inning with the game deadlocked at 1-1, Jacquez hung a slider. Johnson took it over the right-field wall - with a little help from the wind - for a two-run homer.

"I kept trying to pull the ball, but finally stayed back to go opposite field," Johnson said. "You know, he's a great pitcher and very well-known, so to get an opportunity like that and come through, it just was a great feeling for me and the team."

Franklin had just tied the game in the last half-inning on a beautifully executed suicide squeeze by Tyler Crupper at the plate and Gabe Alvarez on the basepaths.

"He got me," Jacquez said. "Sure, the wind might have helped, but you don't drive it that far without putting a good swing on it."

Still, the Cougars had plenty of chances. They got the leadoff runner on in four innings and went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

Bridges, however, deserves a lot of credit. The sophomore left-hander kept fastball-loving Franklin hitters off balance with four pitches, going to his off-speed stuff nearly 50 percent of the time.

Bridges went six innings, surrendering just two runs and getting six strikeouts. Bryson Mitchell got the save for Coronado.

"Ricky gave it his all, but we struggled at the plate," Franklin coach Andy Powers said. "Coronado mixed in a lot of different pitches and didn't give us a lot of fastballs. We didn't adjust to that."

With Franklin's ace no longer in play, Coronado's confidence grew as the players sensed the series was ripe for the taking. And Game 3 turned into an offensive explosion for Coronado.

The Mustangs scored five runs in the third, including four with two outs. Zach Ancell hit a two-run blast, his second homer of the series.

Franklin responded to pull within a run thanks to a three-run triple by Jacquez, to give him four RBIs in Game 3, but Coronado's bats were too good. The Mustangs erupted for another five runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth. Eight Coronado hitters scored at least once and Brayden Blackwell and Paxton De La Garza each had two RBIs.

The Mustangs also got some help with four walks and a Franklin error that led to two more runs.

"We had some mental mistakes - in both games," Franklin senior shortstop Ray Delgado said. "We didn't score runners. We had errors. We got too comfortable after the Game 1 win."

And Coronado made one key adjustment. After getting slammed with throwing mostly fastballs in Game 1 and seeing the success of Bridges in Game 2, Coronado coach Gary Hix went back to a soft-tossing lefty.

Tyler O'Neill, another southpaw, entered in the third inning and shut down Franklin. He allowed just one hit over four innings, mostly relying on off-speed pitches. The one hit was two-run single from Delgado.

"That's a great team and, boy, can they hit a fastball," Hix said. "So we didn't give them a lot of fastballs, and we threw off-speed stuff."

It worked and helped Coronado take down Jacquez, and eventually Franklin.